Developed by Bullfrog Productions and published by Electronic Arts in 1994, Theme Park is a fun business management simulation where you have to design and build a successful theme park full of rides, food, employees, and queues in order to turn a profit and beat the competition.
Tag Archives: British
Moon Cresta, ZX Spectrum
The Spectrum conversion of Nichibutsu‘s classic 1980 arcade game Moon Cresta was published by Incentive Software in 1985 and it is considered to be very good, considering the machine’s limitations.
Light Force, ZX Spectrum
Light Force is one of the best vertically-scrolling shoot ’em ups on the ZX Spectrum and it was published by Faster Than Light in 1986. It was written by Greg Follis and Roy Carter – the same guys who wrote the classic Spectrum games Tir Na Nog, Dun Darach and Marsport for Gargoyle Games.
The game is a fairly straightforward – if very playable – shooter, with smooth-scrolling backgrounds that have destructible elements, but it is so well presented that it’s hard not to be impressed.
Fortress, BBC Micro
Fortress on the BBC Micro is a bland and overly-difficult Zaxxon clone written by Matthew Newman and first published by Pace in 1983.
Cool Spot, Megadrive/Genesis
Cool Spot is a cartoony platform game featuring the brand mascot* for the soft drink 7 Up. It was programmed by David Perry and first published by Virgin Games for the Sega Megadrive/Genesis in 1993.
Football Manager, ZX Spectrum
It might look like an outdated pile of crap by today’s standards but Addictive Software‘s 1982 game, Football Manager, was a massive hit on the ZX Spectrum at the time.
Orc Attack, Atari 8-bit
The classic Orc Attack was originally developed by Dean Lock for the Atari 8-bit family of home computers and published by Thorn EMI in 1983.
You play a guy defending a castle rampart from attacking orcs that are trying to climb up using ladders. The orcs plant the base of the ladder on the ground then bring in sections to raise it up, taking just three connected sections to reach the top. You must run and grab rocks, placed at either side of the battlement, to throw down at the attackers. If the attackers reach the top of the rampart the stones temporarily turn into swords, which you must grab to hack down the invaders that are threatening your castle. When a round is complete you can throw burning oil onto them to torch the remainder.
The Kristal, Amiga
The Kristal is an obscure British adventure game based on an un-produced theatre play written in 1976 (called “The Kristal of Konos“), developed by Fissionchip Software and published by Addictive Games in Europe and Cinemaware in North America. The fact that Cinemaware picked up The Kristal for distribution in the US and Canada is a surprise in itself, as that kind of thing didn’t happen very often back in 1989 when this game was first released.
Microcosm, Amiga CD32
Microcosm was much-hyped upon release in 1993, but in essence is a very limited ‘rail shooter’ set inside a human body – with pre-rendered video sequences used to depict the third-person viewpoint.
The game was originally developed by Psygnosis for the FM Towns, with some investment from Fujitsu, and was later ported to MS-DOS, the Sega Mega-CD, the 3DO, and the Amiga CD32.
Bruce Lee, Amstrad CPC
The Amstrad CPC version of Datasoft‘s Bruce Lee, developed by Timedata Ltd., is excellent – not far off the Atari 8-bit and Commodore 64 versions, which are rightly regarded as retro-gaming classics.